Six teams are participating in the Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet G2 Summer Launchpad program, a collaborative effort by the City of Goleta and UC Santa Barbara to support local technology start-up businesses.

The eight-week program is focused on product commercialization and business launch, according to the UCSB Technology Management Program.

This summer’s participants are all recent UCSB graduates, and the majority of them were part of the New Venture Competition. 

GEM Director David Adornetto said it made sense that entrepreneurs who got their start in the New Venture Competition would go on to be a part of the G2 program.

He called the New Venture Competition is “a natural breeding ground for start-ups.”

Still, that doesn’t mean that the G2 summer program is exclusively available to UCSB students and graduates. Community members are welcome to apply to the program.

GEM provides funding to participating teams, which also receive help getting prepared to bring their products to market, such as identifying customers and building effecting marketing and branding strategies, according to the UCSB Technology Management Program.  

The G2 Summer Launchpad program culminates with a Demo Day, where participating teams get to display their products to the public and show the progress that they’ve made during the summer.

This year’s Demo Day will take place on Sept. 6, and though a location for the event has yet to be finalized, Adornetto said it will likely take place on UCSB’s campus. 

GEM has changed since its inception; It no longer has its own incubation space or the Goleta Valley Chamber of Comerce as a partner. 

Teams in the summer program are using the Wilcox Incubator on UCSB’s campus as office space, and Adornetto said that in the future, GEM might need to have a brick-and-mortar location in order to support these teams.

“That’s a bridge we’re going to have to cross in the future,” Adornetto said. “Right now we’re trying to utilize the resources that we have.”

— Noozhawk intern Dhiraj Nallapaneni can be reached at news@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkSociety, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.